Vaccine rollout to finally begin on Monday

It’s really happening, Victoria. The coronavirus vaccine rollout begins Monday, with the state’s most vulnerable at the front of the queue.

Victorians will line up for COVID jabs on Monday as the biggest vaccination rollout in the country’s history swings into action.

Vaccinations will begin at two of the main three hubs while the third, Sunshine Hospital, was on Saturday getting ready to open in early March. Healthcare workers will be first in line.

The workers will be among nearly 680,000 on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, including border force and quarantine workers, COVID-19 medical staff, aged-care and disability employees and residents to head the vaccination list.

By October it is hoped most Australians over the age of 18 will have been vaccinated.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt called on Australians to get the shots as soon as they could.

“Australia is about to embark on one of the most important public health initiatives in our nation’s history. Getting the vaccination is both an individual and a collective responsibility,” he said.

Victoria’s vaccine rollout will begin on Monday. Picture: Rob Leeson.

“The vaccine will help prevent us from getting sick if we are infected with COVID-19. It will keep people out of hospital. It will prevent people from dying. It will improve lives.

“It will save lives.”

But two out of three Victorian bosses will not make their workers have the vaccination.

The recent survey of more than 520 Victorian businesses by the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry shows just a third support mandatory vaccinations for staff.

The chamber’s chief, Paul Guerra, said the vaccine was crucial to restoring confidence in the state.

Australia’s top scientists have moved to reassure the public the COVID-19 vaccination is safe and to encourage people to get the injection as soon as they are allowed.

The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences — an independent body made up of more than 400 senior researchers and health leaders — said “the robust review processes” of the Therapeutic Goods Administration meant Victorians could be confident approved vaccines met strict safety and efficacy criteria.

“By getting vaccinated, we can all help protect ourselves, our families and the wider community from a disease that has already killed millions of people and caused serious illness in many millions more,” it said.

Western Health nurses Katherine Badderley and Lana Ingle at the Public Vaccine Hub at Sunshine Hospital. Picture: Rob Leeson.

Infectious diseases expert Tony Cunningham said the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines had been subject to full — not emergency — reviews by the TGA, which had shown it to be safe.

“We also have the phase-three trial data and ongoing surveillance by regulatory agencies in the UK and Israel, with Europe to come,” he said.

“The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine rollout has been carefully planned to protect the community, ensuring that populations such as quarantine, healthcare and aged-care workers, as well as aged-care residents, are given first priority.”

Mr Hunt said: “The key message is safety, effectiveness and confidence. If people can see safety and effectiveness, then they will be confident and the numbers will grow and grow.”

The chief executive of Melbourne’s Burnet Institute, Brendan Crabb, said even with the vaccine rollout, it remained critical “for the foreseeable future” to maintain public health measures, including social distancing, hand hygiene, the judicious use of face masks, ventilation and border controls.

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